[OC] New Mexico Now Produces More Oil Than Mexico & VenezuelaSubmitted by latinometrics t3_111id9t in dataisbeautiful
AquaNeutral_ t1_j8fo7i2 wrote
the fuck happened in venezuela in 2003
Dogrel t1_j8fwemg wrote
Hugo Chavez decided to nationalize the entire Venezuelan oil industry, so the affected oil companies got all of their own employees out of country while they still could.
NoWayNotThisAgain t1_j8gsm7o wrote
They were nationalized in 1968. What Chavez did was get rid of engineers and put his friends and family in charge.
GlossedAllOver t1_j8h9qrq wrote
Hate seeing Western propaganda here.
Putting his brother, Doofus Chavez, in charge demonstrated that the People's Will triumphs over the supposed need of experience and middle school education.
[deleted] t1_j8hp6jz wrote
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AdamsFei t1_j8hyb7o wrote
So the drop in production is also western propaganda?
GlossedAllOver t1_j8j4pnq wrote
Absolutely. Doofus Chavez has personally guaranteed that production is higher.
Kebo94 t1_j8gz3in wrote
More like there was a massive general strike and oil production stopped due to the strike. In the aftermath Chavez fired 40% of the work force of PDVSA.
Questjon t1_j8gx1oz wrote
Venezuela's entire economy was oil. The oil was being extracted by foreign companies who got a large portion of the profits in exchange for extracting the oil. In 2003 the new government decided it wanted all the profit, fired all 19000 employees in the oil companies and replaced them with Venezuelans (ones loyal to the new government). It turns out extracting oil is actually very difficult and the lack of expertise killed the industry.
That's the abridged version, there's more to the story but the moral is, don't mess with success, diversify your portfolio, never fire all the smart people.
BobLoblaw_BirdLaw t1_j8hflkc wrote
Why didn’t they just tax them more and make them pay higher share of the oil. Rather than get greedy and want 100%. Orrrr slowly build your expertise over decades times. And then diversify like saudis
be_more_constructive t1_j8hikvv wrote
>slowly build your expertise over decades times
Very few countries have the foresight or the political systems in place to do so. When you're an authoritarian populist like Chavez your tomorrow is not guaranteed and you need to take actions that have immediate effect. Tbh, that's true of most leaders.
Questjon t1_j8hrsrq wrote
There's no good answer, they thought the job was easier than it was and they'd be freeing up a few hundred billion dollars a year that they believed rightly belonged to their country. I'm sure in hindsight they'd do things differently.
The Saudis as you say did things the smart way, they started out with a 50/50 profit split with American companies and over time used their profits to take more control and increase taxes and eventually own the entire industry and diversify profits. That process did take 50 years though and Venezuela's government wanted fast results because they weren't an authoritarian regime like the Saudis and needed to win the next election.
Although Maduro fucked the economy so badly that he ended up turning Venezuela into a sham democracy and seizing authoritarian power because there was no chance of him winning a fair election. The road to hell is paved with good intentions.
Clique_Claque t1_j8gbwhm wrote
Communism does it again!
Daniferd t1_j8h42ew wrote
But that's not real communism /s
GhettoFinger t1_j8oqean wrote
It literally wasn’t communism. If nationalizing your food, energy, oil, and housing markets is communism, then Norway is a commie piece of shit.
DRamos11 t1_j8htjco wrote
Chávez wins the elections in 2002. After this, signatures start being collected in 2003 to request a referendum to have him step down.
Government finds out which employees of PDVSA (the State’s oil company) signed in favor of the referendum, violating the right of a private vote defended by the constitution, and has them fired.
Obviously, the country still required the company to produce, so they replaced expertise and experience with political loyalty, which is also the reason production has declined ever since.
Source: My dad was one of them.
Bonus fact #1: the list of signatures against Chávez is called the “Tascón List”, and was used to ensure the fired employees weren’t in the payroll of any oil companies, including foreign ones with permits to exploit, by threats of steep fines and remotion of such permits.
Bonus fact #2: same thing happened with Maisanta, the so-called “Socialist Company of Agricultural Production and Development” in 2004 (Source).
Bonus fact #3: Same thing happened again in 2016, when calling for a referendum to have Nicolás Maduro step down (Source in Spanish).
VoraciousTrees t1_j8gyjvi wrote
What would you guess would happen if you forced soldiers in your military to run your oil infrastructure after driving out all your foreign engineers?
Well, that.
Eastlifephilosophy t1_j8hhdcp wrote
Democracy and free world people want to ,,own,, Venecuela but
TheFek t1_j8hjzv3 wrote
Somehow not real socialism
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